History YMMV / Wizard101

* UncannyValley: Let's just say that the game's attempts at updating character models so as to make them look less cartoon-ish have failed spectacularly. The most infamous example would be the [[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D3LZcSrWwAItupK.jpg Fire Elves]].

* ThatOneLevel: Sunken City. The bosses are fairly normal and can easily be defeated by lower-leveled wizards with the help of friends or solo if you're higher-leveled, but many players hate the dungeon because it is ''extremely'' easy to get pulled into battles with {{Mooks}}, even if you're on the supposedly "safe" sidewalk.

* ThatOneBoss: Belloq is one of the most infamous bosses in the game. He's a cheating boss, but unlike other cheating bosses up to this point not fulfilling his cheat (which is to hit him ''every'' round) will allow him to cast a 0 pip Ra which has a gigantic amount of damage by this point in the game. Players will really need to team up here because he's insufferable if you're attempting to solo. [[spoiler:he reappears early on in Azteca, where he doesn't cheat, but reappears ''again'' towards the end, where he will catch many a wizard off guard by cheating again.]]

* ThatOneAttack: ''Weakness''. For the first half of the game up to Dragonspyre, ''every enemy'' knows it regardless of class or playstyle, and since it's free to cast, they'll be using it liberally. It cuts a 25% chunk off your next spell, and for such a math-heavy game, its liberal use is a headache considering this often means spending an extra turn on monsters that shouldn't be much of a hassle, or for bosses, wasting time with expendable "whack" spells to remove the Weakness while hopefully not using up any stacked charms. What's worse is that as of the Spring 2021 update, its accuracy had been buffed so that it can't miss (unless you cast either a Black Mantle or a Smokescreen on the enemy beforehand); before this, it still had a 10% chance to fizzle.

* ThatOneSidequest: The quest for retrieving leaves from the Green Men in Wysteria. Even though Wysteria is a short side world, to complete it you ''will'' have to do this. For whatever reason, the drop rate on these things is ''insanely'' low, to the point that you can go through dozens of Green Men and still not get any leaves. You might fight anywhere from thirty to sixty of them before you have all 4 drops. Innumerable forum posts complaining about this sidequest abound, and many of them have reported running out of mana before completing the quest. Collection quests are usually far more forgiving than this, but this issue was never fixed. It doesn't help that the Green Men, as life opponents, are fairly annoying, with both a heal and an armor they will use liberally.

* FoeYay: Eris Golden Apple from Mount Olympus sounds oddly flirtatious when talking to you, to the point of calling you "very fair" [[HoYay (regardless of your gender)]] and even admitting that she'll ask Zeus to let her keep you.

* AwesomeMusic: 90% of Nelson Everhart's score for the game is nothing short of glorious.

** In Wizard City, you'll largely be fighting ghosts who simply sink into the ground, skeletons who fall apart, or monsters who comically pass out when defeated. Once you reach Kroktopia, you'll be fighting seemingly living anthropomorphic crocodiles who disintegrate into sound with a scream of agony when beaten.

** Beguile is a unique and interesting spell that can have major effects on the battlefield, causing enemies to cast spells that benefit the players for one round. However, it consumes 3 pips and does not see much use in situations where your enemies' moves are unpredictable, and as such, using it could potentially wreck a damage build-up strategy against enemies with high health upon which you plan to eliminate with OHKO strategies, or they might end up doing nothing or just cast a blade on themselves or give you a blade you can't possibly make use of. Not to mention its useless in PvP if you go second, as the affected can simply pass or cast a spell on themselves to avoid harming the team strategy.

* CompleteMonster: [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Queen Morganthe Malory]], a student of Ravenwood Academy, got banished into the void after she tried to study black magic in order to defeat her teacher. When a character discovers her plans, she then attempts to kill this person and then sell out her brother to her teacher to get into her teacher's good graces. After escaping the void, Morganthe seeks the power from the planet Celestia by ravaging the entire world in a war. It was also revealed that she tricked a king of a realm by wearing a cursed crown, and when said king turns against Morganthe, she attempts to poison him. In the realm of Azteca, she summons the spirits of the dead, which she uses to capture and torture the inhabitants so that they could make her a weapon. Morganthe then summons a [[ColonyDrop meteor to destroy Azteca]]. Before the final battle, she mocks her opponent about the destruction of Azteca, and when defeated, attempts to erase the former's memory. A cruel, sadistic and selfish [[WickedWitch sorceress]] with a massive [[AGodAmI god complex]], Morganthe eventually goes on to attempt to destroy the world to recreate it [[InTheirOwnImage in her own image]].

** While Balance, Death, and Life were considered strong schools in their own rights, one of the more maligned attributes that they had in common were their original global spells were non-damage related, particularly Balance's. Life's (Sanctuary) was considered comparatively useful, as it boosted healing by 50 to 60% (it has since been nerfed, but still sees some use), but still wasn't very helpful if they were seeking to deal damage, especially in game where damage dealing is one of the more popular actions (not to mention it had a 3-pip cost). Death's global spell (Doom and Gloom), saw less use, being purposed to reduce healing while a death could survive simply by utilizing its drain spells. Due to the fact it reduced your allies' healing capabilities, it pretty much never saw use in battles by players where multiple players were involved, barring the fight against Shadow Malistaire. And Balance's was considered downright useless, due to its 4-pip cost and the fact it only boosted power pip chance for everyone, which is useless at higher levels where you are borderline guaranteed power pips every round, and was less efficient at lower levels when those pips could end a fight quicker by being used to damage enemies that required no more than a few hundred damage points. As of 2020, updates have been made giving both life and balance 2-pip damage amplifier global spells that boost damage by 25% (something that has been standardized for all global spells). Death still lacks a damage global spell (barring those granted by the Red Ghost item card and treasure card), but fans are anticipating a fix.

* TheScrappy: You'll be hard pressed to find anyone who actually ''likes'' [[ItsAllAboutMe Nolan Stormgate]].

* AuthorsSavingThrow: One of the things fans hate the most are a [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard boss's late cheats]], which allows them to punish players who are late to the battle (i.e. who don't join during the first round). Given the ''extremely'' short timespan between players initiating a battle and the battle actually starting, late cheats were activated ''a lot'' unless players were well prepared. Thankfully, the most recent update allowed players to join the current round of a battle (including the first) as long as the timer was still active, meaning player's don't have to worry about late cheats like they used to.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: One of the things fans hate the most are a [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard boss's late cheats]], which allows them to punish players who are late to the battle (i.e. who don't join during the first round). Given the ''extremely'' short timespan between players initiating a battle and the battle actually starting, late cheats were activated ''a lot'' unless players were well prepared. Thankfully, the most recent update allowed players to join the current round of a battle as long as the time was still active, meaning player's don't have to worry about late cheats like they used to.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: One of the things fans hate the most are a [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard boss's late cheats]], which allows them to punish players who are late to the battle (i.e. who don't join during the first round). Given the ''extremely'' short timespan between players starting a battle and the battle actually starting, late cheats were activated ''a lot'' unless players were well prepared. Thankfully, the most recent update allowed players to join the current round of a battle as long as the time was still active, meaning player's don't have to worry about late cheats like they used to.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: One of the things fans hate the most are a [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard boss's late cheats]], which allow them to punish players who are late to the battle (i.e. who don't join during the first round). Given the ''extremely'' short timespan between players starting a battle and the battle actually starting, late cheats were activated ''a lot'' unless players were well prepared. Thankfully, the most recent update allowed players to join the current round of a battle as long as the time was still active, meaning player's don't have to worry about late cheats like they used to.

* FoeYay: Eris Golden Apple from Mount Olympus sounds oddly flirtatious when talking to you, to the point of calling you "very fair" [[HoYay (regardless of your gender)]], even admitting that she'll ask Zeus to let her keep you.

* ThatOneAttack: ''Weakness''. For the first half of the game up to Dragonspyre, ''every enemy'' knows it regardless of class or playstyle, and since it's free to cast, they'll be using it liberally. It cuts a 25% chunk off your next spell, and for such a math-heavy game, its liberal use is a headache considering this often means spending an extra turn on monsters that shouldn't be much of a hassle, or for bosses, wasting time with expendable "whack" spells to remove the Weakness while hopefully not using up any stacked charms.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Many fans were ''not happy'' with some of the recent updates, the most prominent being the change in voices for many of the [[NonPlayerCharacter NPCs]].

** Storm wizards have a ''very'' rough first half of the game. They're ''insanely'' fragile, and their brawny spells are so inaccurate that battles tend to blow up in players' faces if they aren't lucky enough to get it over with quickly. Storm is essentially pigeon-holed into keeping Life as a second class just to survive.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Many fans were ''not happy'' with some of the recent updates, the most prominent being the change in voices for many of the [[NonPlayableCharacter NPCs]].

* ThatOneBoss: Belloq is one of the most infamous bosses in the game. He's a cheating boss, but unlike other cheating bosses up to this point not fulfilling his cheat (which is to hit him ''every'' round) will allow him to cast a 0 pip Ra which has a gigantic amount of damage by this point in the game. Players will really need to team up here because he's insufferable if you're attempting to solo. [[spoiler:he reappears early on in Azteca, where he doesn't cheat, but reappears ''again'' towards the end, where he will and catch many a wizard off guard by doing so.

* ThatOneSidequest: The quest for retrieving leaves from the Green Men in Wysteria. Even though Wysteria is a short side world, to complete it you ''will'' have to do this. For whatever reason, the drop rate on these things is ''insanely'' low, to the point that you can go through dozens of Green Men and still not get any leaves. You might fight anywhere from thirty to sixty of them before you have all 4 drops. Innumerable forum posts complaining about this sidequest abound, and many of them have reported running completely out of mana before completing the quest. Collection quests are usually far more forgiving than this, but this issue was never fixed. It doesn't help that the Green Men, as life opponents, are fairly annoying, with both a heal and an armor they will use liberally.

** Storm wizards have a ''very'' rough first half of the game. They're ''insanely'' fragile, and their brawny spells are so inaccurate that battles tend to blow up in players' faces if they aren't lucky enough to get it over with quickly. Storm is essentially pidgeon-holed into keeping Life as a second class just to survive.
** Continuing Storm's difficult time was the minion, which was hated outright due to nigh-uselessness due to crappy AI. The ''idea'' was that it would draw fire away from the Storm Wizard that summoned it, hence the Taunt spell, but this didn't work in practice. Minions have incredibly low draw aggro to begin with, and the Water Elemental often failed as a meatshield. Combined with how frail Storm wizards already are and how frequently they need healing, seeing the minion constantly apply healing Sprites, Elemental Shields, and Life Armors to itself over the dying summoner felt like a kick straight to the teeth. This was finally fixed so that it focused heals and wards on the summoner instead.

** [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools In a gentler example of this]], Ice Armor. It is a a self-only armor spell that absorbs 125 damage per pip, which is pretty cool but limited in team play and has a chance to miss. Later on it is rendered obsolete by Frozen Armor, which does the same thing, but buffs for 175 per pip, can't miss, and can be applied to teammates.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: While the game itself is targeted towards Kids, it also deals with a lot of heavy-handed subjects such as [[{{Death}} death]], [[TheLostLenore grieving a lost loved one]], [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil slavery and oppression]], and [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity insanity]].

** [[TropesAreTools In a gentler example of this]], Ice Armor. It is a a self-only armor spell that absorbs 125 damage per pip, which is pretty cool but limited in team play and has a chance to miss. Later on it is rendered obsolete by Frozen Armor, which does the same thing, but buffs for 175 per pip, can't miss, and can be applied to teammates.